By Wei Chen, Programme Assistant, Economic Development, Trade and Investment, and Dr Ruth Kattumuri, Senior Director, Economic Development, Trade and Investment, Commonwealth Secretariat. Photo credit: Clayton Smith/WorldFish
Over the past decade, collective action on climate and sustainable development has moved firmly into the mainstream because of scientific evidence, multilateralism, activism and extreme weather events-induced urgency. This growing awareness has also produced a sombre consequence: a pervasive sense of dread.
In 2017, the American Psychological Association popularised the term “eco-anxiety” to describe the grief, fear, anger, and helplessness associated with climate disruption. Young people experience this anxiety most acutely. More than half of 16 to 25-year-olds surveyed across ten countries reported feelings of worry, grief, and betrayal linked to inadequate institutional responses. For young people, the question is no longer whether there is a crisis, but whether we are responding at the scale and speed required. Hope has become increasingly scarce, but this scarcity can also become political currency when effectively mobilised.
Climate anxieties apply across communities too, for the harm unfolds unevenly across geography, generation, and gender: rising sea levels, desertification, and extreme weather destabilise fragile economies, with impacts falling hardest on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and vulnerable regions including sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Southeast Asia, despite their limited historical responsibility for emissions. Women and girls often bear disproportionate burdens through heightened care responsibilities, income loss, disrupted education, and increased exposure to exploitation. Gender equality, enshrined as a core value in the Commonwealth Charter, is framed not only as a fundamental right but also as a precondition for sustainable development.
Climate justice is a Commonwealth principle
As such, climate justice has become a governing principle for Commonwealth leadership. This concept is grounded in distributive, restorative, procedural, and intergenerational aspects. At successive Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM), leaders have consistently reaffirmed that those who contributed least to global emissions face the gravest burdens. From the 2015 Commonwealth Leaders’ Statement on Climate Action to the 2024 CHOGM Leaders’ Statement, Heads of Government have upheld the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities while highlighting structural inequities within global climate governance.
In advancing distributive and restorative justice, the Secretariat focuses on transforming systems that obstruct a sustainable future through collaboration with its member states. It has consistently advocated for reform of international financial institutions to secure fairer access to concessional finance for small and vulnerable countries. By promoting the Commonwealth Advantage, alongside green trade, digital commerce, and sustainable investment, the Secretariat seeks to channel private capital into equitable and sustainable development. Equitable access to finance ultimately determines whether communities and young people can build sustainable infrastructure, access green jobs, and protect their incomes.
Procedural and intergenerational justice, meanwhile, focus on empowering individuals, communities, and micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The Commonwealth Alliance for Quality Youth Leadership aims to equip up to 100 million young people by 2030 with leadership and soft skills suited to a climate-disrupted world of work.
As economies transition, green skills must be accessible to women and young people alike. Commonwealth initiatives also seek to expand women’s participation in STEM education and improve access to climate data and accountability tools.
Taken together, the Commonwealth’s approach recognises that justice is multidimensional. It is distributive in mobilising finance fairly; restorative in correcting structural imbalances; procedural in elevating the leadership of youth and women; and intergenerational in equipping the next generation with the skills, dignity, and agency needed to shape a low-carbon future.
For young people confronting eco-anxiety, especially young women navigating compounded risks, hope is sustained not through rhetoric, but through redesign: systems that redistribute opportunity, amplify voices, and refuse to treat vulnerability as inevitability.
Read more: World Court tips the scales - Climate justice moves from rhetoric to responsibility
